Alaska State Victories
The following NFIB victories will make a real difference for your business.
Recent NFIB/Alaska victories:
2007
Small business pricing disclosure
NFIB/Alaska helped pass limits to mandated financial disclosure by tour ships to simply that a commission or mark-up exceeds 20-percent. The disclosure section of Ballot Measure 2 ("The Cruise Ship Initiative") as written required cruise lines to disclose the specific commission rates that Alaskan tour operators pay to have their tours sold onboard the cruise ships. That required disclosure would have exposed the price structures of small businesses, which could lead to unfair price undercutting, with all Alaskan tourism businesses suffering as a result.
Workers' compensation medical payments
House Bill 228 extends the medical rate freeze in the state's workers' compensation program for two years. In 2005 the Alaska Legislature made significant changes to the workers' compensation program. Medical payments were frozen at the 2004 fee schedule so that a review could be done of the underlying reasons for premium increases. This review was to be jointly done by a special Workers Compensation Legislative Taskforce in concert with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development Medical Review Committee. The taskforce, which included NFIB Leadership Council member Ted Quinn, did not complete its report by February of last year, and, as a result, the state was facing the end of the medical rate freeze this month. The extension should allow time for the insurance companies to compile and submit their analysis and recommendations after reviewing care costs for injured workers so that the Legislature can address the underlying reasons for premium increases.
Transportation costs
NFIB/Alaska supported House Joint Resolution 8 forced the state of Washington to drop its proposal for a container tax. The Washington Legislature considered imposing a $50 fee per 20-foot equivalents for shipping containers. It would have significantly increased the transportation costs of most goods coming to Alaska. This regressive type tax could cripple not only shipping into Alaska, but also the variety and availability of goods that Alaska depends on. The added cost of Alaskan exports going through Washington ports would have competitively disadvantage our products in the lower 48 marketplace. As a result of HJR 8, NFIB-recommended letters from Gov. Palin and public out-cry from Alaskans, Washington dropped the proposal.
Held off more mandates and employer taxes
Bad-for-small-business bills that NFIB/Alaska helped kill or stall included an increase in the minimum wage above the new federal level and addition premium-raising mandates on health-care plans. But small business is not out of the woods yet, since this is a two-year session, they might get some traction again next year as will one measure good for small business.
Workers' compensation reform
Important workers' comp system changes finally passed the legislature. The new legislation creates a Workers' Compensation Appeals Commission made up of experts in workers' compensation law. Their decisions will be precedent-setting. This process will be a more efficient and less costly way to resolve workers' compensation board decision disputes.
Tort reform for medical liability
NFIB/Alaska won a big tort reform battle with the passage of SB 67. SB 67 limits damage awards to $250,000. In cases of wrongful death or severe permanent impairment, the awards are limited to $400,000. Note: There are no limits for economic damages, such as past and future lost wages and medical costs.
Streamlined wage and hour law requirements
NFIB/Alaska worked hard to gain passage of HB 182, which adopted a definition of salaried and professional employees similar to the federal law. This bill eliminates a paperwork nightmare that was not only cumbersome but impossible for many small businesses to accomplish.
VICTORY: 2002
NFIB/Alaska helped defeat legislation that would have established a two percent tax on all business income. Small-business owners like you from all over the state let legislators know how damaging this bill would be to small business, and they listened.
VICTORY: 2002
An NFIB-requested hearing helped stall the progress of draft regulations covering health and safety programs, ergonomics, indoor air quality and workplace violence that would be damaging to small business. We continue to watch this issue closely and will alert members if it starts to move.
VICTORY: NFIB successfully opposed two pieces of legislation that required businesses to offer mental health benefits on equal par to physical health coverage. Neither bill mandated health insurance, but both stated that if you offered health insurance to your employees, you would be required to achieve parity for mental health coverage. History has shown that benefit mandates at the state level have resulted in premium increases, and many small businesses end up dropping health insurance altogether.
VICTORY: NFIB led the successful fight to pass legislation that stops required double overtime pay for employees who work more than eight hours a day or more than 40 hours a week. The change will save businesses thousands of dollars. Double overtime resulted from an earlier state Supreme Court decision. This is an example of NFIB quickly fixing a very damaging court decision before most of our members knew a problem existed.
VICTORY: Tort Reform Victory in Supreme Court Decision
Almost as soon as we got tort reform legislation passed in 1997, the trial lawyers filed constitutional challenges. The challenge that the entire tort reform legislation was unconstitutional was thrown out early on. The Supreme Court has recently made decisions on the remaining challenges. The Court unanimously upheld the cap on punitive damages. This was a big win for NFIB and the entire business community. The Court split 2-2 on the constitutionality of the caps on non-economic damages. This means the caps from the 1997 legislation remain law. The cap is $400,000 per injury unless the injury involves severe permanent physical impairment, in which cas the cap is $1,000,000.
